Problems? Don't call us....
So since weeks since the snow began in December, and most of the residential streets are hummocks and berms of snow that rise above the sidewalks. In many neighborhoods they are impassable. An unusually large accumulation of snow throughout December is to blame, we are told.
But 6 weeks after it began, most of the neighborhood streets have not been cleared, and as fresh snow adds itself to packed slush the streets become increasingly problematic.
The city's response?
Read the article here.
Quote: "The city's 311 service fielded more than 1,000 calls Tuesday and Wednesday from motorists demanding the clogged roads be cleared -- prompting an initial request that residents stop calling".
Think of the city as a service provider, elected officials placed in charge of your tax money to deliver essential services to the community.
Obviously ploughing streets in Canada is not an essential service. Or perhaps the need to plough snow from streets in Canada is not a foreseeable issue.
Or maybe the job of our elected officials is to rebuke citizens for expecting services. That's it, I think....
Quote: "It has been rough weather. But it would be irresponsible to respond to fluctuations in seasonal weather."
Presumably then it would be irresponsible to respond to floods, heat waves or other forces of nature. Your tax money at work.
The solution, in the end? Wait for a chinook to clear it. And when the weather has done it's work the politicians will step forward to grasp at the credit.
**NOTE: A city that put reasonable boundries on growth and expansion, with an emphasis on building up high density urban neighborhoods, would have no problem clearing streets within reasonable time and alloted tax frames. This is obviously not that city.
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Sporenography
So it's after Christmas and the boy has brought over one of his new gifts, "Spore", a game in which you create and evolve your creature from single cell to galactic empire. And I'm curious, in part because I've seen Will Wright's Ted talk so we install it on the computer and he walks me through the first couple of levels.
I'm intrigued by this game, the graphics at the cell stage are remarkable, and beyond the graphics I'm curious as to how the game itself will evolve. I've decided to be a carnivore the first run through, and when I evolve onto land begin by making a feast out of any neighboring animals I can digest. The boy is concerned, I'm not doing my best to make friends of the neighboring tribes of animals, and I'm curious too what repercussions this will have upon my evolution.
The possibilities for a game like this are endless, and at first the game is an exploration as to what extent the possibilities have been realized. Is it possible to starve, because one has extinct every species on the planet? How will these actions affect my creation later in the game? And then there is the diversion of the character editor, customizing your creature, adding horns, limbs, mouths and other features to make it unique.
The boy interrupts me to check on my progress and looks with disgust upon my creation.
"There's a word for that. Sporenography." he says.
.png "Image: On Land")
.png "Image; evolving")
.png "Image: Finally Evolved")
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Parent Swap
It's New Years Eve and I'm winding up my daughter. She's been complaining about us, her mother and I, and I suggest to her the idea of the "Parent Swap".
She's intrigued and so I explain.
"Every New Years Day you can take your parents into the parent swap and switch them for parents that you like better...."
It sounds too good to be true.
"Make up your mind. Lots of kids do it, you just look around, find some parents that you like better, and they take you home...."
She doesn't know whether to trust me or not, I must be joking, and after some deliberation she decides to keep us.
"That's fine..." I tell her..."But I'm still taking you to the Child Swap".
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A better mousetrap
If you've been reading the blog you probably have seen mention of my pet mouse. Well, not a pet really, just a chronic houseguest. Sometimes I see him from the corner of my eye when I'm working on the computer, scurrying about the kitchen, for christmas I bought him (her?) a little hamster chew bar and hung it near the floor. I can now watch him cautiously poking out from underneath the stove, climbing and nibbling the chew.
Not that he needed it, but it's got to be a welcome relief from going through the garbage.
But I noticed the other day, as I watched him hanging on the chew bar, that there was still the rustling of the garbage bag, and a horrible thought came to me. And standing patiently in the kitchen, the garbage on one side, the chew on the other, it was confirmed.
No longer is it just mouse. It's mice.
And where I was reasonably laid back about having a mouse now I'm a bit worried. Because for anyone good with math there is at least a 1 in 2 chance that 2 will become a few, and those few will become many.
So there will have to be an end to the free ride. They were beginning to keep me up at night anyways, the nibbling of baseboards, the noise from the kitchen, the rustling, strange sounds as if of things being knocked over (although I've never yet found what they were knocking over).
I've tried the humane traps before, with no success. The idea is to catch the mouse unharmed and release him/her into the wild. But this mouse was a little too clever for it. Somehow he'd get the bait and escape. And when the boy and I were bored I'd assign him the task of building a better mousetrap from his K'nex set. None of them worked either. There is, however, another option. The toilet paper tube baited with peanut butter and set on a counter top, precariously balanced over a high walled bucket or vase.
This will probably be the way to go. I'll need to get a small cage to store them until spring before releasing them. And some seed so they have a good start on learning to forage. Soon the house will be mouse free....
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